


learning how to love

by chokingonroses



Series: running away and hiding with you [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Blood and Violence, But not explicit, Drabble, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Hurt, Kinda?, M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Non-Graphic Violence, One Shot, billy uses pain to relieve stress, first time saying I love you, just the good ol' demodog fights, kinda like a canon take?, they're just real soft for each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 03:10:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15548295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chokingonroses/pseuds/chokingonroses
Summary: "I love you.He had said it first. Only a murmur, his voice coming raw and hurtful in between abused lungs and cigarette smoke. The warmth of the naked chest underneath his head and the fingers threading through his hair punched it out his guts. The dim lights of the room decided to hide his blush and the soft music they left playing in the background covered his words.Still, he felt Steve’s breath stop. He felt the pale, small chest underneath his head jump as he caught his breath, his fingers hesitating with the play.They’ve been doing this for a few months now."OR: Billy tells Steve he loves him first. With a quick peck on how they both fell for each other.





	learning how to love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [harringtonsgrande](https://archiveofourown.org/users/harringtonsgrande/gifts).



> hello there!  
> so, this is a quick thing, meant to be my canon take on how they'd first kiss and get together? i didn't feel like writing the whole thing off, so i summarised it in this tiny one shot.  
> i suggest listening to I Caught Fire by The Used while reading this, it's a beautiful song, it's about falling in love while being a mess and totally inspired this whole thing.  
> (song link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3obfkLWD4U)  
> also, this is a gift for my baby, my light, my soulmate, Nic, to whom the work is dedicated to. i love you, baby.  
> anyway, hope you all (but specially nic) like it! xx

_I love you._

 

He had said it first. Only a murmur, his voice coming raw and hurtful in between abused lungs and cigarette smoke. The warmth of the naked chest underneath his head and the fingers threading through his hair punched it out his guts. The dim lights of the room decided to hide his blush and the soft music they left playing in the background covered his words.

Still, he felt Steve’s breath stop. He felt the pale, small chest underneath his head jump as he caught his breath, his fingers hesitating with the play.

They’ve been doing this for a few months now.

 

It all started back in November, at the creepy kid’s house. He could barely remember anything that happened that night, all a blur in between adrenaline and drugs. But God, his touch. Two fingers, near his heart, pushing him back, pushing him _away_ , voice dropping an octave, coming out raw and murmuring only two of words that reverberated through Billy’s brain. _Get out._ he said. It wasn’t fair. They lied to him. They disrespected him. And now, the prettiest boy he’d ever seen was pushing him _away_.

It all started back in February, when the doe eyed boy’s face was totally healed from his fists that were still split. The reason for his bruises was the same but this time the target was a tree, in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the outskirts of a town placed near nowhere, in between lost and anyplace. Frustration took over his body, moving his curled up hands on their own accord, pain coming through as the skin over his bones ripped open, blood and flesh being slowly brought to the cold wind and dark starry sky. Big brown eyes and pink lips got his head spinning in thoughts of never having, never touching, always wanting. Open knuckles got his mind to shut down and he could breathe once again, even if it hurt to grab the wheel of his car, even if it kept reopening the scars whenever he moved too much. He was familiar with pain. It was an old friend, he used to tell himself.

It all started in March, when he ran over a monster corpse on the sidewalk in a failed attempt of getting away from the horde chasing them. Max and Steve’s weird, curly haired friend were screaming in the backseat, the little Byers kid frozen in fear and Billy couldn’t believe he was actually trying to help those children. The adrenaline rushing and pumping through his veins didn’t let him process what or why everything was happening and all he could think of was arriving at the damn cabin Sinclair— of all people— was trying to give him the directions for.

It kept going on in March still but a different day. He and Steve had just left the wooden cabin that was now their bunker. Byers and his mom had taken the kids away, trying their best to protect the little one because _he had been through enough._ Wheeler was trying to keep the Jane kid awake while her brother brew coffee and the Chief tried to figure out how everything was happening _again_. Armed with an old axe he found, his back glued to Steve’s and he could feel his cold warmth, sipping through layers of smelly and bloodied clothes hug his back and embrace him. His breath came out shallow, his lids closing in the slightest so his vision could adapt to the darkness surrounding them. They had to protect the others, he needed to make himself useful. So, when the first demon hissed in between dark trees and starless skies, he screamed back.

It was that same day, a few hours later, with a wound up Steve all over him back in the cabin, that his heart did something dumb. They were alone, everyone else had left, as a part of Hopper’s plan to keep on moving, to evacuate whenever they could. Everyone but Steve, who said he’d stay behind for Billy. Who kept the fire up in the small wood burning stove. Who wiped Billy’s bloody face clean and tried his best to nurse his arm, that had an ugly, livid, open and bloody gash over it and he avoided looking while Steve dabbed it clean with an old rug and warm water from a bucket. He kept whispering under his breath how dumb Billy was, jumping in front of a lab created demon to protect Steve. His hair was all floppy, his frame was so skinny and his huge eyes had dark circles under them. Billy wanted to take all of his pain away. Couldn’t believe he had stayed behind for him. That he had saved him.

It was a few weeks later that he finally lost his mind. Everyone was near the lab and trying to get away. The forest in between them and the car was too dark and too dangerous and it’d be stupid to go there. But Steve was hurt, his white shirt stained with blood all around the stomach and he looked so pale, so fragile, so pliant with his back touching the small protection wall they had built around them. He was sweating and cold and kept writhing in pain and Billy— he couldn’t take it anymore. He had to take Steve to the car, might it cost his life. Had to save him. So, with a final look to the dark forest in front of them and a gulp of thick saliva, he ducked down and caught Steve’s breathy and chapped lips in his own. _For good luck._ he told himself and whispered to the boy whose brown dark eyes were now the size of dinner plates. And, with a smile and a grunt, he threw himself into the demons cave.

It was one exact month after that and they were all healed. Steve called him dumb for jumping in the forest and never mentioned the kiss again. Until they had a dinner party and Billy ended up staying late, his father already too pissed at him. Couldn’t go back home that night, and, since they both couldn’t sleep, not with the flower faced demons hunting their dreams, an all nighter was held. And, between scoops of ice cream and bad, late night movies, Steve straddled Billy’s lap, making him choke around the glass bottle of warm coca cola and whispered _never thanked you enough for saving me that day._ Billy froze as Steve reached down and kissed him, And kissed him. And kissed him more. He tasted like soda, like ice cream, like coffee and cigarettes. He was warm and Billy felt like he was burning alive but it never felt so good.

It was now, two months after that night, that they had laid down, post sex haze floating in the air around them, that he had said _I love you._

For one moment, he thought Steve would only ignore it. For two moments, he regretted saying it. For three moments, he was already lifting himself up, away from the warmth, from the soft touches, from love. For four moments, he tried to come up with an excuse, _anything,_ to take the bad feeling away from his chest. Before the fifth moment, he was caught breathlessly in a kiss so sweet it tasted like honey and felt as warm as the sun.

His heart did laps and started racing again as he looked at the boy in front of him, his thoughts dancing in a pool of molasses, his skin on fire as Steve searched for his hands under the duvets. He felt like burning alive, like a mess, like a broken record that could only scream how stupidly in love he was with the boy fiddling with their fingers in front of him, _so, so close he could feel his heartbeat_. He felt his eyelids drop as he stared at brown eyes and lightly freckled skin, sly smiles and thick, chestnut hair.

And his heart full stopped when Steve said, in one breath against his lips, foreheads touching and fingers interlaced, fitting so perfectly together, _I love you too._

**Author's Note:**

> so, this was fast  
> i don't have much else to say, just really hope you liked this!  
> again, thank you for taking your time to read this and, as always, you can find me on both tumblr and twitter under the cover of @/billyhargrovw!
> 
> see y'all in two months because my writing schedule sucks
> 
> xoxoArto


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